Alexei Navalny Video Day Before Death Raises Alarms

A video of Alexei Navalny taken just a day before his death on Friday has raised alarms about the jailed Russian opposition leader.

"Yesterday Navalny looked to be fine during a court hearing where he spoke via video link from his penal colony," Francis Scarr of BBC Monitoring wrote on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a video of Navalny.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service announced on Friday that Navalny had died in prison, and the cause of death was still "being established." Navalny had been in jail since 2021.

The Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny fainted while on a walk and died shortly after: "Medical workers from the institution immediately arrived and an emergency medical team was called."

A number of other social media users also shared the video of Navalny just a day before his reported death.

Navalny, seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, has been in jail since February 2021 under major fraud and contempt of court charges widely viewed as politically motivated. He was being held in an Arctic penal colony, considered one of the country's harshest, where he had been serving a 19-year jail term.

Journalist Yashar Ali shared the video on X, saying, "This video of Alexei Navalny is from yesterday. He had a court appearance which he attended from the Arctic penal colony he was being held in."

Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, shared the video and said, "Yesterday, Aleksey Navalny spoke in court via video link. He seemed to be in good health and even joked."

Ned Davies of BBC responded to the video, saying, "Here's Navalny showing what makes him unique in this video after his final prison transfer. He kept injecting humour and positivity into those around him even in the bleakest of situations."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

The context:

Navalny's death on Friday comes a few weeks before Russia is expected to hold its presidential elections in March, where President Vladimir Putin is seeking his 5th term.

Putin, who has led Russia since 2012, previously altered Russia's constitution, allowing him to seek two more presidential terms after 2024.

Navalny was a vocal critic of Putin, and his supporters have repeatedly called for his release from the Russian penal colony.

What we know:

In 2013, Navalny was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to a five-year prison sentence. However, a judge later reversed his sentence pending appeal. Navalny then led an attempt to run for Mayor of Moscow shortly after being released, where he came in second place.

In 2019, Navalny was jailed in connection to a protest over an election in Russia. While traveling to Moscow in 2020, he became ill, resulting in a plane making an emergency landing in the Russian city of Omsk.

Navalny was later transported to Germany, where doctors determined that he was poisoned with a nerve agent. The Kremlin denied reports that it was involved in the poisoning as Navalny continued to accuse them of attempting to kill him. In 2021, Navalny decided to return to Russia, where he was jailed again with a nine-year sentence for allegations of contempt of court and embezzlement.

Views:

Navalny's spokesperson responded to reports of his death on X, saying, "The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is spreading the news of Alexey Navalny's death in IK-3. We have no confirmation of this yet. Alexey's lawyer is currently on his way to Kharp. As soon as we have some information, we will report on it."

The Associated Press reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin was informed of Navalny's death.

Michael McFaul, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, said on MSNBC's Morning Joe Putin was to blame for Navalny's death.

"Putin killed Navalny because he was the one opposition leader in Russia that Putin feared the most," McFaul said.

What's next:

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan remains jailed in Russia over allegations that he was involved in espionage while in Moscow in 2018. Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is also currently jailed in Russia and has said he is being wrongfully detained.

"Our intensive efforts to bring Paul [Whelan] home continue every single day, and they will until he and Evan Gershkovich and every other American wrongfully detained is back with their loved ones," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month.

Update 2/16/24, 8:11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and to note that Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.

Update 2/16/24, 8:26 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.